Ronda Chervin received a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Fordham University and an MA in Religious Studies from Notre Dame Apostolic Institute. A widow, mother, and grandmother, she currently teaches philosophy at Holy Apostles College and Seminary in Cromwell, Connecticut. Write to her at chervinronda@gmail.com.

Tournemire could be charming or he could bite your head off. One day I could not replace him at St. Clotilde because I had a wedding to play at another church. Tournemire played on Sunday, period—that was all. He did not play weddings and so forth. (He put all that on my back.) So I went to Tournemire’s house to tell him, “Master, I am sorry but, for once, I cannot replace you. I have another obligation to fulfill.” He said, “Get out of here!” I left for good.
— Testimony of Maurice Duruflé

OMEONE suggested it would it be good to include in a review at nightfall these two questions: To whom did I show love today? Who showed love to me?An interested image from an old journal: Perhaps you also have noticed that whereas in medieval times the Catholic Church was the center of town, a sacred place in the midst of the hurly burly of the market, now our new “sacred” place is the bank-vault. Lowered tones are apparently most appropriate when you enter the golden safe-deposit bank room ushered in by an “acolyte” with a special key in hand.

Another old journal notation. Now in 2013 I can’t even remember who this was! “I was reflecting today about the character of a friend who seems to carry all the negativity of the group he belongs to. A valiant, loyal and cocky person on the good side, he is also disappointed in life and bitter about past injuries. Subjected to verbal abuse from his father as a boy, he exhibits exceptional sensitivity to slights to which he retaliates by ridiculing his victimizers in conversation not with them but with others about them. Because his remarks are so amusing, I chide myself as an enabler of his bad traits. You seem to be teaching me, Holy Spirit, to praise this man lavishly for what he says and does that is good and try to change the subject when his wit turns sour. I know that we can learn from the flaws of others as well as from their virtues. Help me withdraw my own claws when I have been hurt. Let me find fun not in sarcasm and caricature but rather in the ambiguities of life that are so human and humorous. How I love it when others are able to relax a tense atmosphere by means of non-toxic outrageous puns and zany stories.”

Longing for freedom of spirit has always been a part of my quest even though I am not quite sure what freedom of spirit really is. My external image of it comes from the popular movie about St. Francis: Brother Sun, Sister Moon with scenes of followers running through the fields. One of my mentors, Charles Rich, the lay contemplative,(see my web-site for books of mine about him and others he wrote that I edited) claims that the real freedom of spirit comes interiorily from total surrender to God. Conchita, the Mexican mystical saint wrote that “Peace is the sweet freedom of spirit that does everything without anxiety.”

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